SA21 Breaching Experiment

Breaching Experiment

SA21 E Charles Onghantiac, Kevin Sy, Kelvin Aliga, Timothy Chan, Claz Chae, Joel Espinoza

1. What norm did you violate?

The group decided to violate the age and dining etiquette norms for the use of baby bottles.

2. Describe the breaching experiment in detail. What was the activity? Where did you do it?

The experiment was performed with two deviants while the rest sit separately to watch, record and listen to people’s reactions in the area. The activity was to simply drink from a baby bottle in front of as many people as possible. We chose to do the experiment at Jollibee and Starbucks during lunch time to maximize the number of people present, as well as to figure out whether there is a difference in the reactions of customers in high-end and low-end restaurants. At Jollibee, we came in separately, ordered lunch and sat in different parts of the room. The deviants transferred their drinks to the baby bottle and drank/sucked from it and ate lunch. At Starbucks, the deviants ordered a frappuccino and asked the barista to put it into the baby bottle. After the deviants received their order, they requested to have a selfie of them holding the baby bottles with one of the baristas.

3. Reactions

Jollibee

• Group of UP students were secretly talking about the deviants and possibly took a picture
• Other customers took a second glance either with weirded and amused expressions
• Group of old ladies were amused and one of them personally walked up and asked “Masarap ba?”
• Neighboring tables were silently talking about the deviants
• The waiter who delivered the order of the deviants was basically surprised looking suspiciously at the deviants’ faces
• One customer who was lining up can’t stop looking at the deviants even tried to look closely to really check what’s going on
• A family of four with a kid was talking and laughing at the deviants’ action and even told the kid “bebe pa sila o, nagtsutsupon pa”
• Group of four girls was really shocked and surprised with the deviants’ action

Starbucks

• The barista taking the order was surprised
• One of the baristas asked if it was for a baby
• Other customers were looking at the deviants with really surprised and weirded expressions
• One of the neighboring tables were talking about the deviants
• The guard was also caught looking at the deviants
• Other employee’s were secretly staring and laughing from the back of the counter, one of them called the manager
• The barista whom we took selfies with was laughing

Those involved in the deviance experiment reacted the way they did since the acts were very far from the mundane, commonplace rituals they notice on a daily basis. The deviants did not act their own age, and instead portrayed the habits of infants. This was humorous, shocking, and blatantly weird among the observers as this was far from the social norms of behavior i.e. in food establishments. These reactions were probably brought about by breaking the social barrier of acting appropriately given one’s age. The deviant act, in the process, reinforces the existing norms of, specifically, the usage of baby bottles in relation to the age and dining etiquette norms.

4. Aside from the norms, what sociological themes are at play for people to react in a certain way? Is it a function of gender (gender norms, roles), social class (norms of the rich & the poor), values/ beliefs of the institutions (religions, family, peer group, etc.). [You could compare reactions according to gender, social class, etc. That would be more interesting]

Sociological themes present in the experiment is the theme of values and beliefs from a institution which in this case being civilized. The experiment was conducted based on acts that are acceptable to certain age groups.  Most of the reactions were functions of values and beliefs of the institution given that the group violated age and dining etiquette norms. People reacted based on the belief that baby bottles are only used by infants incapable of using cups rather than adults who should be physically capable to drink from any container. The purpose of the baby bottle is to help infants drink since their mouths are too small for regular cups. Furthermore, since the experiment was done in two restaurants who are frequented by two different social classes respectively, the theme of social class norms also come into play.

5. How did you feel when you did this experiment? How does it feel to deviate from the norms? Were you hesitant to do the activity?

The deviants were hesitant in doing the breaching experiment at first. But then, they had to do it. The deviants found the breaching experiment to be really challenging because it needed a lot of confidence to really do it very well and very precise. It also needed courage to do it because of the fact the people will inevitably judge the deviants’ actions. Deviating the norm, the deviants felt a sense of satisfaction and fulfilment as it made them realize that deviating certain norms isn’t that bad at all.

6. Other observations and analysis that you may have on the activity and on deviance in general.

The researchers further observed that the atmosphere between the two locations where the experiment was conducted also came into play for people to react. In Starbucks, since coffeeshops are considered to have a more intimate environment wherein people seem to have a space bubble of their own, closely chatting with their friends or busily studying for their examinations, lesser people have reacted here. And within these few people who reacted, most of them were not even the customers, they were personnels working for Starbucks which means that they are not necessarily included in the “high” social class. In Jollibee, where people are known to have fun-bonding times with family and/or friends, a lot of people openly, or even TRY to discreetly, express their reactions. They had almost the same reactions with the personnels working in Starbucks. However, in Jollibee, the vast majority of those who reacted were the customers. In summary, there was quite a difference between those who reacted to the breaching experiment; Starbucks’ employees and Jollibee’s customers were the majority of those who reacted.